St. Louis residents honor veterans, oppose chained CPI

Veterans, union activists, retirees and area residents joined together at the Soldiers’ Memorial to honor veterans and draw attention to a new report from Strengthen Social Security/Social Security Works, which details how a proposed chained CPI would harm Missouri veterans and Social Security beneficiaries.

Participants urged the Missouri Congressional delegation to oppose the chained CPI and other benefit cuts in any upcoming budget deal.

CPI stands for the consumer price index, a formula that looks at how prices of things like food and other necessities change over time. It’s used to make cost-of-living, or COLA, adjustments in programs such as Social Security, veterans’ benefits and food stamps.

The stingier chained CPI measures living costs differently by assuming that when prices for one thing go up, people will settle for cheaper substitutes (If beef prices go up, for example, they’ll buy more chicken.)

The chained CPI would significantly cut the benefits of all current and future Social Security beneficiaries, four in 10 of whom are retired and disabled veterans. Veterans would be hurt most of all, given that other benefits veterans receive – in addition to their Social Security benefits – would also be cut by the chained CPI.

“This is serious business,” Dave Meinell, president of the Missouri Alliance for Retired Americans, said. “If the proposed chained CPI passes in a budget deal, it will be a broken promise from many politicians in Washington that they would not cut benefits for current Social Security beneficiaries. The chained CPI is an insidious and compounding cut to Veterans and Social Security benefits that impacts all current and future beneficiaries.”

To view the report on how the chained CPI would harm Missouri veterans and Social Security beneficiaries, go to www.socialsecurityworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Chained_CPI_Will_Harm_Missouri.pdf.